436 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Dec. 



M. Big-g-s that the work done some time ag-o reg-arding- the 

 virulence of the diphtheria bacilli be ag"ain tested. In 

 cases in which the clinical diag-nosis was follicular tonsillitis 

 or pseudo-diphtheria, the virulence of the cultures was 

 tested and notes were made reg^arding- the number of 

 diphtheria bacilli and whether or not they were charac- 

 teristic. In four months 71 such cases had been tested, 

 and from 50 of these bacilli were obtained in pure culture 

 and inoculated into g-uinea pig's. In 38 of the 50 the ba- 

 cilli were characteristic and abundant ; in 37 they were vir- 

 ulent; in 1, non-virulent. In 2 the bacilli were atypical. 

 Out of 48 characteristic cultures, the bacilli were virulent 

 in 46 and non-virulent in 2. In two cultures of the pseudo- 

 type they were virulent. Of those tested, in 26 the diag-- 

 nosis was not diphtheria; and of these, 22 were virulent 

 and 4 non-virulent. In 24 doubtful cases the bacilli were 

 virulent in 22, and in 2 not virulent — in other words, in 

 twelve per cent of the 50 cases they were non-virulent. 

 In 2 of these the bacilli would be called atypical. 



Dr. L. Waldstein asked Dr. Park if he had noted any 

 relation between the size of the individual links and the 

 leng-ths of the chains and the virulence of the bacilli; also 

 whether in making- cultures of the streptococci the viru- 

 lence was affected by the alkalinity or acidity of the 

 medium. 



Dr. Park replied that he had examined swabs from slig-ht 

 pus cases, and in these the chains had been very long-. In 

 some of the cultures from the severer cases the chains 

 had been rather short. He had made no exact observa- 

 tions as to the effect of the alkalinity of the medium on the 

 virulence of the bacilli. — Medical Record. 



Antitoxin Treatment of Diphtheria in Austria. — Pro- 

 fessor Paltauf has published statistics of 1,103 cases of 

 diphtheria in which antitoxin was employed, with the re- 

 sult of 970 recoveries and 133 deaths, equivalent to a mor- 

 tality of 12.5 per cent. He lays much stress upon the early 

 application of the serum, for in the case of injections made 

 on the second day of the disease the mortality amounted 



